Cheek piercings; the good, the bad and the ugly.

By Anonymous · Nov. 10, 2009

My cheek piercing experience could easily be defined as that of a successful one. Knowing that their referred to as "the piercing that never heals" made me wary at first, but deeply satisfied now that (a year later) there as close to healed as I've seen possible.

First things first with cheek piercings; be patient. For the first week or so, my cheeks and face were not very happy with me. I looked like a chipmunk. Being in that relative area and all, I knew they were going to swell, and swell a lot. But I didn't imagine it would be for a couple of days straight. If that's not bad enough, the idiot piercer that did mine (PLEASE be careful of this because you'll regret not saying something) put labrets in that were longer than normal length, but still way too small for the procedure he was performing. And that had some disgusting and miserable results. With cheek piercings, they aren't like regular piercings at all. Rather than swelling the most right after you get them done, and going down as time goes on, they do just the opposite. As soon as they start swelling, you can expect within the next couple of days it's going to get worse before it get's better. That being said, the more mine swelled around the labrets that were too small, t

he more they started to imbed. First it started with just the backs of them. Though that should have been a red flag right there, I had it stuck in my head that it would all go away soon enough, sense the piercings were just simply fresh and irritated. But what I didn't realize was the more they were imbedding, the more they were swelling, so it was a lose-lose for me and I didn't understand how serious it was until I noticed the next day that the left piercing had gotten so bad, that the ball had started to imbed in my face. Disgusting, huh? And I mean half of it was sunk into my face. Believe me when I say it fucking hurt and its nothing you want to have to go through. It was way too swollen for me to do anything about it and I actually considered going to the hospital. I tried and tried to grab it with various things to get the ball off to relieve the pressure, but nothing was coming close to working given it's current condition. It was not a sight for sore eyes. It was b
loody and disgusting and I could not have been more angry at the piercer. Part of me wanted to march back into his shop looking like that and ask him if he thought it was funny what he had done to me. But I kept calm, and lucky for me, my step dad who doesn't know the last thing about piercings but way too much about tools, went to his shop, melted down a pair of pliers into much thinner ones to make it easier, and came back to save the day. (If this ever happens to you and you have those resources, I strongly recommend you use them. I would have been completely screwed without them.) Although it was extremely painful and bloody and made that left cheek a lot more pissed, we used stiff like contrustion paper and pushed back whatever of the swollen cheek we could to minimize pinching any of it in the pliers, and he used the pliers to grab hold of the labret, and another thicker pair to unscrew the ball. He did clip some skin, there was even more blood, and when I took it out
it was nothing I wanted to look at in the mirror. But already it felt worlds better. I decided the best way to go at that point in time was putting a tongue ring in there. It was a little ridiculous as far as length, but at that point that's what I wanted, and the balls were big enough where I didn't have to worry about them also imbedding into the smaller holes made by the other one.

Now I don't want that to scare you, because that's just a cheek piercing horror story, and can be easily prevented if you watch what your piercer plans on putting in your face, or better yet; get a good piercer. But I was fifteen years old at the time and just thrilled he was actually gonna do them on me. After I wore the tongue ring for a while, the swelling went down, the imbedded areas completely healed, and I was a much happier camper. Then it was just onto the more typical cheek piercing side effects, like major leaking of gross bodily fluids, and lots and lots of crust. (More typically in the morning time than anything. You'll get used to the first thing when you wake up being grabbing some toilet paper to wipe all of it off. Major ew.)
One thing I can almost guarantee, (and you'll figure this one out on your own in time) is that you are going to have one "problem" cheek. And by problem cheek I mean it's going to be the one that always gives you complications, probably throughout the whole duration that you have them pierced. Even when the other is perfectly fine, that one will act up and give you problems every once in a while. No matter how healed you have them. Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, my left is my problem cheek, and it still gets crusty and pissy and leaks once and a while. Everyone that I've come to know who also has them done, has that same thing going on, whether it be there right or left, so don't think you'll be an exception.
Other than that, all I can say is keep up with them. They aren't easy, the hardest I've had to work through so far. But it's well worth it when you get to the point where you can wear exactly what you want in them and the dimples start really showing through. Again, I've had mine for a little over a year now, and they are doing great. I can't say this for everybody, but mine took about 6ish months until they stopped giving me most of their problems and it's been easy ever sense. You have to be very careful of keliods and hypertrophic scarring though, something both me and my boyfriend experienced. They were much different for both of us, but what I can say about mine is that if I played with it too much (this has only happened in my problem cheek) a jelly like thing will push itself out from the hole. It's weird looking, and almost looks like you can pick it off, however you can't so don't try, haha. Be careful of this, and if it ever happens to you, as gross as it might be

, don't panic just leave it alone. Stop touching your cheek piercings with your fingers, and especially stop playing with it with your tongue. Once it relaxes, It will go back in and look normal again. But it is freaky at the time. You'll know exactly what I'm talking about, if you see it.

So we've gone through the ins and outs of cheek piercings. There is good and back, but if your like me, and fall in love with whatever is in your face, they will definitely be a happy favorite. Don't rush it, but you'll get to the point where you will find exactly what looks good on you, the right size labrets to indent the cheek piercings as much as you favor, and the right size balls to top it off. I'm geeky, but very in love with mine, and happy with my success story. The best advice you can get, is; watch what your piercer uses, don't over clean them, play with them as little as possible ...as tempting as it might be, and BE PATIENT. Without patience, mine would have never healed. Best of luck to you, and happy cheek piercings, kids!

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 10 Nov. 2009in
Lip Piercing

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Artist: SeanStudio: Extreme+ImagesLocation: Rockland%2C+Maine

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